To say Bell Cranel was uneasy, as he walked through the light green stone hallways of the fifth floor of the dungeon alone, would have been an understatement. The young fourteen year old adventurer had been in the dungeon for quite some time, but he had yet to even come across even a single monster in the entire time he had been down there. He hadn't been an adventurer for long, barely even half a month now, but even he had experienced enough in the underground labyrinth to know that going this long without encountering anything wasn't something that happened naturally. He had even gone down to a deeper floor than he usually did in search of any kind of monster to hunt, but he had only found two or three monsters all day.
The only thing Bell could think of to explain why he hadn't found anything yet was that he had poor timing and had entered after a stronger group of adventures that were killing all of the monsters before he could even get a chance to see them. Though the problem was that if he really was as close behind them as the lack of monsters was suggesting, then that meant that he should've heard some kind of battle ahead or at least seen some signs of a battle. So far, he had heard and seen nothing at all even remotely suggesting that there was another adventure that was ahead of him.
"Man, well this sucks…" Bell said to himself as he scratched the back of his head as he let out a sigh.
He briefly wondered if he should leave and head back to the abandoned church that he and his goddess called home, but was quick to discard the idea from his mind. Sure he was unable to find any monsters, but that also meant that he didn't get enough magic stones yet to call it a day. Still, it was worth considering heading back a floor or two to see if any monsters had spawned yet…
Letting out another sigh, Bell began to turn around to do just that… only for him to stop dead in his tracks when he noticed something very strange in front of him.
Sitting right in front of him was a golden cup that sat on the stone ground. A golden cup that Bell was beyond certain that hadn't been there before since he had been looking all over the place. Bell blinked a couple of times as he stared at the cup to make sure that he wasn't seeing things. When he was certain that he wasn't, Bell slowly walked up to the golden cup and carefully inspected what it was exactly he was looking at.
Whatever the cup was, or a goblet to be more specific, seemed to give off its own sort of aura of light or, at the very least, was shined to the point that it gave the impression of that, even in the dim light of the dungeon. Furthermore, the more Bell inspected it, the more he began to be allured to the highly intricate and beautiful engravings on the base, handle, and bottom of the bowl like top. He wasn't a master craftsman by any means, but even he could see that whoever made the cup before him must've spent hours upon hours of painstaking effort to make the engravings. In fact, Bell wouldn't be surprised at all if the person who made this goblet was a god of the forge, or even Hephaestus herself.
That last thought about the goblet stuck in Bell's mind especially. Who had made this, and why was it here? Did someone leave it here for some reason? Or maybe it was some kind of ultra rare treasure that was spawned by the dungeon?
"Well, whatever it is, it's bound to catch a good price." Bell thought to himself as he smiled and began to reach out to grab the beautiful goblet. The day was starting to look up for him after having gone nearly the whole day without running into any monsters, which basically meant that he was going the whole day without getting paid, which was a serious problem for being the only member of a economically troubled Familia. However, he quickly reconsidered his turn of good luck when his gloved hand finally came into contact against the golden cup.
Immediately, the hand that he had reached out to grab the cup began to suddenly feel like it was on fire, the pain being bad enough to make Bell light headed and lose his breath. Falling on to his knees, he quickly pulled his hand back and used his other hand to tightly grab his wrist as he began to groan loudly in pain. Bell couldn't even think straight as the burning in his hand began to feel like it was being branded by a red hot iron from the inside of the skin. The agony was becoming too extreme for Bell to handle as he curled up against the stone floor of the dungeon, his teeth grinding together as the image of a ring, or more accurately a hole, composed of swirling blue flames and gases began to dominate his vision. Even closing his eyes in an attempt to shut it out didn't work as it only seemed to grow brighter and began to become even more omnipresent around the young adventurer.
For what felt like an eternity, Bell could only continue to writhe in agony on the ground in pain, with the absence of monsters thankfully meaning that there was nothing around him to take advantage of his vulnerable state.
It suddenly came to an end after what was in reality only a minute or two, just as suddenly as it had begun. Out of nowhere, the burning pain Bell had felt in his hand had completely disappeared, along with the visage of the ominous ring that had dominated Bell's vision. When it did, Bell stopped gritting his teeth together and slowly began to open his eyes before just as slowly began to open and close his right hand, the one that had suddenly began to burn, wanting to make sure that the hand was alright but being careful in case that it suddenly exploded in pain again at the movement.
When he was sure that it was safe to use his hand normally once again, Bell let out a sigh of utter relief now that the pain was finally gone and whatever had happened was over.
"What was that?" Bell asked no one in particular as he tried to make sense of what had just happened in his head, only for him to be unable to find any answers. Letting out another sigh, Bell began to get up off of the ground. Whatever had just happened had made it clear to Bell that today wasn't going to be his day in the dungeon, and it would probably be a good idea to cut his losses and take the cup back to the guild to get whatever he could for it before calling a day. Not that he wasn't extremely hesitant to even touch the cup now, the burning pain still fresh in his mind, but he still needed something to make up the money for the eventless day. It was only when he went to pick the golden cup up once again that Bell realized that it was gone.
"Huh?! Where did it go?" Bell said before jumping up to his feet in surprise at the absence of the goblet. He quickly began to look around all over the stone hallway that he was in to try and find it, but it was useless. The goblet had disappeared just as suddenly and without explanation as when it had appeared and the pain that he felt when he had touched it. Instead, what he found was far less welcome than even the golden cup and what was probably the reason why there were no monsters around on this floor.
Standing before him was a minotaur, a large humanoid creature covered in thick fur with boulder-like muscles and the horned head of a bull that was almost twice as tall as Bell. A powerful species of monsters that were capable of taking down experienced adventures that were far more skilled and stronger than Bell was. A species of monster that was born on the middle floors, more than half a dozen floors below the one Bell was currently on, but here it was. Right in front of Bell. Looking right at him as it let out a deep growl.
Bell quickly forgot about his search for the golden goblet as he went wide eyed staring at the monster in front of him, paralysied in surprise and utter terror at seeing the minotaur. He was only brought out of his stupor when the minotaur took a step toward him, its growling only growing louder. Panic and fear surged through Bell's mind in response, and before he even realized it, he had whirled around in the opposite direction of the minotaur and ran away as fast he could. "Aaaahhh!" Bell screamed as he ran away from the minotaur at full sprint through the stone hallways of the Dungeon's fifth floor.
"RAAAGHH" The minotaur roared as it began to give chase to Bell, it's larger size allowing it to easily keep pace with the novice adventurer with less effort. It's powerful footsteps slammed against the stone ground as they thundered loudly from behind Bell, which was the only indicator for the white haired boy for how close the minotaur was to him since he was too afraid to look behind him and see for himself. As the footsteps only began to grow louder, Bell knew that the minotaur was quickly gaining on him despite how he was running faster than he ever had before, the adrenaline and fear pushing him to go even faster.
During the chase, Bell nearly tripped and fell when there was a small but sharp incline in the ground, but he fortunately managed to catch himself to roll back onto his feet before continuing to run. Close behind him, closer behind him than Bell was comfortable with anyway, a huge chunk of a wall fell out as the minotaur accidentally knocked it out as it chased Bell, causing a large thick dust cloud to be kicked up, even to the point that it was impossible to clearly see through it. In most situations, this probably would've given Bell the perfect opportunity to escape, as the minotaur would've lost sight of him in the dust cloud and would've been unable to follow after him. However, Bell had the unfortunate streak of luck to have ran straight into a dead end, leaving him trapped as he could only turn around and press his back against the stone wall as the minotaur emerged from the fading dust cloud.
"RAAAGH" the Minotaur roared out again as it threw a powerful but almost blind punch at Bell once it was close enough, only to miss and hit the stone wall as the boy slid down the wall with his back still pressed to it. The punch from the minotaur created a hole in the light green stone, causing some stones and dust to fall onto Bell as he wrapped his arms around his head. Not to protect himself from the debris of the punch, but because his utter terror had gotten to the point that Bell couldn't handle it anymore. He shut his eyes behind his arms and hands, not wanting to see his inevitable death coming when the minotaur realized it was just punching the wall and he was underneath it.
"Please… somebody save me!" Bell begged mentally as he choked down a whimper of fear. His eyes were clamped shut, prefering to see only darkness as opposed to his killer, the minotaur, pulling its fist back to finish him off. However, because his eyes were closed, he missed something wondrous happening right in front of him.
A red glow began to shine from Bell's hand, the same one that had touched the golden goblet and had burned in pain earlier. The glow was bright enough to shine through Bell's glove and even catch the minotaur off guard, stopping it from throwing another punch to finish Bell off. Then, all of a sudden, there was an explosion of bluish white in between the minotaur and Bell which was so blinding that the minotaur was forced to take a step back and use both of its muscular arms to block the light lest it go completely blind. The minotaur would then let out a growl, growing frustrated with its apparent inability to kill the weak white haired boy and the sudden pain from the blinding light, "GGRRR-".
"RAAAAAAGGGHHH!"
A loud and powerful roar echoed throughout the stone hallway interrupting the minotaur's growl and silencing the level two monster, as deafening as the light was blinding. Alongside the growl, the minotaur's own survival instincts began to scream at it, telling it to run away from a sudden new threat as if it had suddenly come across a monster from an even deeper floor of the dungeon. It opened its eyes in an attempt to see what was now in front of it, but it was only able to take in a dark, massive outline of a giant even bigger than itself with ferocious glowing red eyes and long flowing pitch black hair before the dark giant attacked it. Its large hand shot forward in a closed fist, slamming into the minotaur's face and the arms that were already guarding its head.
When the fist connected, the force behind it shattered the bones of the arms, turning them into practical dust without even slowing the fist down. It was a wonder how the fist didn't just plow straight through the minotaur's head, turning it into an explosion of red mist and brain matter. Instead, the strength from the punch launched the minotaur backwards, rocketing it through the air before slamming through one of the stone labyrinthian walls, creating a massive hole in the stone. The only reason the minotaur didn't continue to crash through several dozen more walls was that it had been killed immediately by the impact with the first wall, and had promptly exploded and disappeared completely in a cloud of black ash, leaving only its magic stone to clang against the next wall and to fall against and roll around on the stone ground roll.
The black giant exhaled deeply to calm down, letting out a thick cloud of steam as the raging red light dimmed away from his eyes and he began to collect his bearings. He didn't know where he had suddenly been summoned, the knowledge of where and when that was supposed to be provided by the Holy Grail was lost amongst the endless darkness in his mind caused by the Madness Enhancement, which meant he was once more summoned as a Berserker. Had he the ability to, he would've snorted in a dark sense of amusement. Out of all the Heroic Spirits in the Throne of Heroes, he was by far the one with the qualifications to be summoned in the most amount of classes, yet he was always summoned as a Berserker. He supposed that this was the universe telling him that this was his true class, despite it being one of his weakest, something he couldn't argue against… not after everything he did in life.
Putting such thoughts out of his head, he returned to the task of listing out everything he knew, which wasn't much. The first being that he was oddly lucid for being in his Berserker class. It wasn't much, as all but the very core of his being and personality was still lost in the Madness Enhancement, but he was able of some basic form of rational thought process, more than he should've been capable of and he didn't know why. The second, he was in some kind of labyrinth and he had killed some kind of tiny minotaur-like creature… already, at this rate, he would've been expecting a Servant Theseus to come around the corner if he still had his sanity. The third and final thing was that as he was summoned he had heard someone fearfully begging for someone to save them. He could only think that the person asking to be saved was the master who summoned him, needing to be saved from the odd minotaur he had just killed.
A sudden intake of breath from behind him, prompting him to turn his head to see what was behind him. He immediately saw the young teenaged boy with solid white hair and red eyes, dressed in a brown hip length jacket that had a small black patch on the right side over his chest with black pants to go along with it. The boy was clearly terrified of him, evidenced by how his eyes had only widened further when he went to look at him, but the source of mana he felt coming from him meant that the boy was in fact his master.
Something about Bell's appearance, most notably the white hair and the red eyes, and the knowledge that he was his master caused images to appear in Berserker's mind. Images of a young looking girl with blood red eyes who would have easily been mistaken as Bell's younger sister, but those images the girl disappeared in the dark fog of his insanity driven mind as fast as they came to him. Berserker couldn't remember who this girl was, not with his current mental facilities anyway, but he knew that whoever she was, she meant enough to him that just associating the boy in front of him with her in some way strengthened the already powerful desire and instinct of a Berserker to protect his master.
Still though, Berserker, in his oddly lucid state, even without the strengthened desire to protect his master, didn't like the fear he saw in Bell's eyes as he looked up at him. It, along with the earlier voice asking to be saved, meant that he had summoned him by accident, with the Grail merely responding to his will for someone to save him and his want to live. Which then suggested that the boy before him didn't know what or who he was, and instead had come to the conclusion anyone would've and saw him as some kind of terrifying monster.
That was something that needed to be fixed, not just because the relationship between Master and Servant couldn't work well if the Master was always afraid of the Servant, but also the idea that he only caused fear to the person he was to protect didn't sit well with Berserker.
Berserker would fully turn around to look down at his master, the one still sane part of him wincing heavily when Bell flinched when he did. In an attempt to make it clear that he wasn't hostile, Berserker would extend his hand outwards to offer to help him up to while using what little control he had of his facial muscles to try and smile at him for good measure. However, judging by the terrified expression on Bell's face only intensifying rather than being alleviated like he had hoped, his smile must have looked like a fierce snarl to the young boy, and with him reaching his arm out at the same time, it looked far more like he was trying to grab him rather than help him up.
Acting on his flight or flight instincts, Bell quickly shot onto his feet, weaving around Berserker's hand as he tried to "grab" him, and managed to slip by Berserker despite the Servant's large size and the cramp nature of the hallway. As he began to run away, Bell could hear Berserker's footsteps as he slowly turned around, but nothing followed that, telling the young adventurer that Berserker wasn't chasing after him, at least not yet. Bell could only think that the monster that he thought Berserker just saw him as too weak to make it an inconvenience to even chase after and kill for a prolonged period of time. Even if he found that personally insulting, as well as hurt his pride a bit if it was true, he was way too happy that he had a clear chance to get away, one that he was intent on making use of. Well, he would've had it not been for the fact that, in his panic, he didn't notice the magic stone from the Minotaur he had run away from earlier that Berserker had killed, causing him to step on the large purple crystal at a bad angle and begin to trip.
"Whoa!" Bell yelled out as he began to fall forward toward the rocky stone ground, putting his arms out in front of him to catch him. Behind him, Berserker saw Bell beginning to fall towards the ground. Not wanting his master to be hurt at all from the fall, Berserker quickly began to run after Bell as fast as he could to try and catch him before he could come in contact with the ground, becoming little more than a massive black blur that destroyed the stone beneath it to the human eyes. Bell would catch sight of the charging juggernaut coming after him as he fell, causing his red eyes to widen in fear at how quickly and easily "the monster" closed the distance between them when it was given the opportunity to do so.
But even with his inhuman levels of speed, Berserker wasn't the one who caught Bell before he fell all the way.
Just before even Bell's hands could even graze the hard stone, a yellow and white blur came from around the corner and tackled Bell off to the side, allowing the white haired boy to land somewhat gentler on his backside rather than flat on his face. Slamming his foot into the ground with enough force to shatter the stone and digging it into the ground, Berserker would come to a dead stop in the middle of the stone hallway while turning his massive body around to see what had happened to his master. "Are you alright?" A gentle, feminie voice said before Berserker could let out a threatening growl in response to something having tackled his master out of his sight while Bell rubbed the sore spot where he had landed on the ground, causing both of them to look at who it was that had spoken.
Upon seeing her, Bell was caught off guard by just how beautiful the girl was that had, at least in his mind, saved him from Berserker. His mouth would fall open as he looked up at the girl with long golden hair that reached down to her hips, and gentle golden eyes. Her slender body was dressed in a white and black sleeveless dress that was accented with blue lines, long blue boots that reached up to her thighs, and a silver set of armor that consisted mostly of guards that protected her arms, legs, thighs, and head along with a with a chestplate with a thin rapier like sword in a blue thin sheath attached to her hips. Indeed, the blonde woman before them was a stark contrast to Berserker, and in the armor, she gave off the aura of a strong and powerful warrior. An aura that caused yet another image of someone he did not recognize to appear in Berserker's mind, this time of another blonde swords woman in a blue dress and silver armor, but this one was quick to disappear and it didn't have an effect on how Berserker viewed this woman like it had with his master.
But unlike Berserker, Bell wasn't reminded of anyone when he laid eyes on the girl before him, because he knew exactly who she was. Sure he had never seen her before in person, but he had seen enough images of her on notice boards in the Guild to have recognized her instantly. Aiz Wallenstein, the Sword Princess of the Loki familia and a level five adventurer, which automatically made her one of the strongest fighters in the entire world. And the longer he stared up at her, the more beautiful she became and the more his heart began to pound as he rapidly began to fall in love with her at first sight.
"Can you stand?" Aiz asked when she never got a response to her first question. She bent down, putting one hand on her knee as she reached the other one out to Bell to offer to help him up off of the ground. Still though, Bell had yet to react to anything she said or did, simply staring up at her in a shocked daze with his jaw simply hanging open. Since she didn't see him doing anything for the time being, Aiz would turn her head slightly to look behind her and further inspect Berserker and see what he was doing while she was ensuring Bell was safe and alright.
To her, he was an unknown kind of monster that she had never seen before, a clearly powerful one at that. Even with only a glance, Aiz could tell that he was powerful, easily capable of defeating top tier adventurers and more terrifying than monsters that resided on the Deep Floors. What surprised her however, was that he simply stayed where he was while her back was to him, standing so still that Aiz honestly would've thought that he was some kind of statue had it not been for his flowing black hair and her having seen how fast he was capable of moving seconds before.
Aiz found the behavior to be slightly disconcerting. Had Berserker really been a normal monster, it would've blindly attacked Aiz while her back was turned to him. Instead, he had and was patiently waiting. In her mind, that could only mean that Berserker could sense just how strong of an opponent she really was, which implied a level of intelligence that she had yet to see from a monster and one that had no business being on the Upper Floors. Before she could muse any farther on such thoughts, sudden movement from Bell brought her attention back to him.
He had his head hanging down, meaning she could only see his head of white hair while his body began to lightly shake as he began to make sounds as if he was about to cry, which Aiz could hardly blame him for. After coming across the minotaur that had escaped from her and her familia, and then this new monster which gave off an aura that even intimidated her to a lesser degree, the poor boy must have been terrified beyond belief. She opened her mouth to say something to her again, but she never got to say it.
Overwhelmed by everything that had happened to him today, from the mysterious golden goblet, to the minotaur, to the sudden new monster, and him falling in love with the girl before him that had saved him in his eyes, Bell could no longer handle it.
Not wanting to be here anymore, or even in the Dungeon at all for that matter, Bell quickly flipped around to be on all fours before immediately shooting up to begin running away. He screamed out as he continued to run away in the dark stone corridors, stumbling slightly as he did, but he didn't stop as he only continued to run away to try and get out of the Dungeon as fast as he could. All the while, Aiz could only stare in shock as he ran away, so caught off guard by that action was she that she hadn't even moved from her position from when she tried to help him up.
She stared after his fleeing form for a few seconds after he disappeared into the darkness, it wasn't until she heard a massive footstep from behind her that reminded her that Berserker was there that she moved again.
Berserker hadn't known what had just occurred before him, and he could feel whatever bit of sanity he had in him attempt to try to process it. What he did know was that his master was currently running away from him. Needing to make sure that he didn't come across any more danger and protect him from it if he did, along with hopefully following him out of this strange place, Berserker took a step forward to go after him. However, as soon as he did, his instincts took control of his body, bending backwards to avoid the slash of a sword that had been intent on taking his head off before jumping farther back in the stone hallway than where he had stood before.
Once he landed, Berserker looked to see who it was who had attacked him, only to see Aiz standing before him, her rapier-like sword drawn and pointed at him in a threatening manner.
He felt confusion fill him at the sight. The woman did not strike him as the type to randomly attack someone, especially since she helped his master earlier. Then he remembered that he was currently a Berserker and he resembled a monster far more than he did a human. So when he had made a move to follow after his master, she had most likely mistaken it as an action of hostility towards either him or her. It also certainly did not help matters that he had already let out a threatening growl at her without even realizing it.
Aiz narrowed her eyes at the unknown monster as it growled at her. She had not expected such agility from such a large and muscle bound creature, and certainly not in such a confined space. Whatever this monster was, it clearly was one on a level that she had never encountered before, besides maybe the Monster Rexes. However, as she tightened her grip on Desperate and entered a combat stance, she could feel a surge of excitement run through her. If this monster really was as strong as she believed it to be, then defeating it might be exactly what she needs to push her past her limits and to level up.
"Tempest!" Aiz muttered, causing her body to be cloaked in blowing green wind before she shot forward to thrust her sword out at Berserker, her speed and strength clearly increased from her wind enchantment. However, even with the enhancement, Berserker still easily dodged the attack, turning on his back foot so Aiz shot past him without landing a hit. Expecting it this time, Aiz managed to stop her momentum by sliding onto the ground before slashing Desperate out at Berserker's legs to cripple or slow him, but would only hit empty air as the mountain of a man easily jumped over it and away, out of the range of her sword. Letting out a sound of frustration at her inability to even land a hit on her opponent as she pushed herself onto all fours, Aiz leapt off of the ground, propelled by the emerald wind as she launched a series of stabs and slashes out at Berserker while he was still up in the air.
Aiz was once again caught off guard by the agility of Berserker, who turned and twisted his body in midair to dodge each and every single sword swing or thrust. When his feet touched the ground once again, Berserker quickly jumped back once again before Desperate's blade swung right where his head had been just a moment ago as Aiz continued her relentless assault against him. She was now clearly becoming more frustrated as he dodged each attack with ease, with each swing or thrust coming faster than the last one, though each failed to even connect with their target.
The part of Berserker that was still sane felt a little bad about how frustrated he was making the girl. It was clear that her attacks were much faster and stronger than the average fighter's could ever hope to be, and that she must've trained long and hard to get to this level of skill. But her technique was a straightforward one, making it easy for his Mind's Eye (False) to read her attacks and allow Berserker to adjust himself and dodge them. Even had her wind somehow made her sword invisible, Berserker would've had no trouble reading the Sword Princess' attacks… which was an odd example, but it was the first one that came to Berserker.
To make matters worse for Aiz, Berserker was sure that she would've been unable to break through God Hand's defense with her strength alone, but he did not understand the true nature of her wind and was unwilling to test such a thing unless he was confident in it or he had too. Had he wanted to, he was fully capable of defeating her with ease, but he didn't want to hurt her after she had clearly attempted to help his master and was only attacking him because his Madness Enhancement made him more monster than human. Besides, not only did he have complete distrust in himself in his current state to show control and accidentally kill the girl, he didn't want to wound the girl's pride more than he had by defeating her so easily, so he resigned himself to dodging until he was capable of getting away from her.
Berserker quickly ducked under another swing of her sword, which easily cut through the stone wall that was behind him. He then jumped off to the side before she could swing the sword down on him. When he landed a good couple of yards away from her, Berserker stood up to his full height as Aiz stayed where she was, her relentless assault finally being paused long enough for her to catch her breath.
Despite neither of them having hit the other, it was clear to both that this fight was a one sided one in favor of Berserker.
Aiz didn't understand the monster in front of her. Despite it clearly being stronger and faster than her, it had made no move to attack and kill her during the entirety of what could only just barely be described as a fight. Once more, here she was out of breath and it simply stood before her as still and as stoic as a statue. She knew that she would be in over her head if she would continue the fight against Berserker by herself, but retreat wasn't an option. If she was having such a hard time even keeping up with it, then the low level adventures it would come across if she ran away wouldn't even stand a chance.
She did have one thing going for her that Berserker didn't know about.
It was only a matter of time until her Familia would arrive, hunting the minotaurs that had escaped them on the Seventeenth Floor. If she could hold out until then, then all the strongest members of the strongest Familia in all of Orario would surely be capable of taking down-
The sound of running footsteps coming from behind Berserker drew both of their attention. Berserker began to turn around to see what was running toward them, but he was unable to when Aiz flew into action once again. "Tempest!" Aiz said once again, the emerald wind once again wrapped itself around her body before propelling her forward at Berserker, Desperate thrusted forward. Berserker took a step back in response, prepared to once again dodge the attack, but his instincts stopped him as he heard the footsteps behind him stop running after what sounded like a jump toward him.
"Eat it asshole!" the deep voice of Bete Loga yelled out from behind him, foot raised high up in the air, prepared to slam it down on Berserker's head in what would've been a brutal axe kick.
The two Loki familia members bore down on Berserker from two sides, Aiz at his front and Bete behind him, and in the tight confines of the labyrinthian hallway along with his massive size, there was no way to avoid both of their attacks, even with his absurd agility. Against a normal opponent, this would've spelled the end of them since avoiding one attack would've meant taking the other full force, and there were few that were capable of surviving such a hit. Berserker, however, was anything other than a normal opponent.
Berserker shot his left hand forward with his palm out toward Aiz at an angle while his right hand shot up above his hand where his instincts told him Bete was slamming his kicking. Desperate's blade stabbed at Berserker's palm, causing sparks to fly before it slid off uselessly at the angle it was aligned at as if it had impacted a metal shield or another blade of equal strength. Bete's leg slammed down into Berserker's hand, only to feel as if it had slammed into a solid wall of iron before Berserker's fingers wrapped his leg in a vice like grip, keeping it in place.
"W-what the hell?!" Bete yelled out in surprise at the unexpected move from Berserker as both his and Aiz's eyes widened in shock and horror as their attacks were easily blocked by a single hand each. Before they could do anything else though, Berserker closed his hand around Aiz's forearm as she slid forward under the momentum of her failed attack in a similar grip to the one he had on Bete's leg. Then, in a single, fluid motion, Berserker twisted his body around towards Bete as he pulled Aiz forward by her arm and flipped Bete in the air by pushing up on his leg.
As he turned, Berserker would get his first glimpse of Bete. He would see a tall, handsome young man with messy grey hair and amber wolf like eyes, with a jagged purple tattoo under his left eye. He wore a short grey jacket that was lined with a thick amount of white fur that was open with no under short, showing off a lean but muscular torso. He also wore a pair of black jean pants with a light brown belt holding them up and a matching set of silver or white guards on his forearms and shins that was made of a metal Berserker didn't know. What surprised Berserker though, even if he wasn't capable of showing it to any degree, was the set of wolf ears and tail the young man had.
Berserker didn't get more than a second to commit the werewolf's appearance to his memory though, as Bete scowled and glared at him as best he could while he was flipped upside down.
Continuing with his earlier motion, Berserker pulled Aiz along by her arm before throwing her into Bete. The two members of the Loki Familia felt their backs collide with one another as they slammed into each other and flung down the stone hallway. The two had a hard landing on the rocky ground with Bete's back hitting the ground and Aiz rolling off of him face down onto the ground next to him. The two adventures lay still on the ground for a couple of seconds, seemingly knocked out before they both started to slowly get up onto their feet.
"Damn it, what the hell was that?" Bete said in his typical irritated tone, one of his hands on the side of his hand as the other was being used to push him up off of the ground.
"Bete, are you alright?" Aiz said as she used Desperate to get up off of her knees and onto her feet, though she was still a bit shaken after taking such a hit, the arm that had been grabbed by Berserker sore, but it luckily wasn't broken or sprained and was nothing she couldn't fight through.
"Tch! Yeah, it hurt like hell, but it's nothing that'll take me out- Hey, where the hell did it go!?" Bete said as he got back up onto both of his feet, only to interrupt himself and his eyes to widen as he noticed that Berserker was missing.
Aiz's attention snapped in the direction of where Berserker had been standing only a few seconds ago, only to see that Bete was right and the dark giant was nowhere to be seen.
There were no heads or tails of Berserker that either Aiz or Bete were capable of seeing. In fact, the werewolf couldn't even smell the scent of Berserker anymore. It was as if Berserker had simply just disappeared into midair, leaving no sign that he had actually ever existed aside from the signs of the fight.
"We need to find it before it finds someone else!" Aiz said before immediately running off to go search for Berserker in the stone halls of the dungeon.
"H-hey wait a minute!" Bete stammered in response for just a moment before immediately running off after her to help find the missing monster.
Orario, hours later.
Bell ran through the streets of the Dungeon city as the sun set and the sky began to darken, prompting the magic stone lamps to begin to turn on to light the streets instead. A smile on his face as he raced through the busy streets, weaving between the moving bodies of the city's other inhabitants as he ran by the various street booths. Stopping as he exited one of the many alleys, Bell looked out at the area of the city that looked like little more than ruins. He had calmed down tremendously after leaving the Dungeon, and was now feeling better than he had in quite awhile in fact.
The first thing he had done after leaving the Dungeon had been to go straight to the Guild building, wanting to get as much information as he could about Ais Wallenstein from his Guild Advisor, Eina Tulle. Though, when he was asked why he wanted to know, the poor half elf was given a heart attack when he said he not only went down to the Fifth Floor, but also ran into a Minotaur. He then found himself being interrogated by Eina.
He of course told her everything, from how he went down to the fifth floor in an attempt to find more monsters, to the minotaur attack, to the appearance of the black giant, and how Aiz had rescued him. Well… he didn't tell her everything. Bell had to repress a shudder at the burning pain he had felt in his hand when he had touched the strange Golden Goblet and the sight of the ominous hole lined in blue flames.
Eina then, of course, promptly lectured him on how going down to the Fifth Floor had been a stupid mistake and he was insanely lucky to even be alive after running into not only the minotaur but that new monster as well, and how "adventurers shouldn't go looking for aventures". Still, despite giving him a harsh lecture, she said she was glad that he was safe, having expressed a great amount of worry at his report of a new monster being sighted on the Upper Floors. Though that worry would go away when he mentioned that even if he didn't see the monster get defeated, the person that had been with it was none other than Aiz Wallenstein. She then laughed it off, saying that there was no way that the Sword Princess, one of the strongest adventurers in all of the world, wouldn't be capable of dispatching it and that she was only worried about something similar happening in the future.
To which Bell mostly agreed. He of course knew that Aiz would've killed the monster soon after he had ran away, being one of the few level 5s in all of the known world, but still… the image of that monster standing above him and reaching down to grab him was burned into his mind and it wasn't likely he was going to be forgetting it anytime soon. That, alongside the ominous hole that he had seen after touching the goblet, would probably be something that haunts him for a long while.
Bell then concluded the visit to the Guild by asking Eina for any personal information that she had about Aiz Wallenstein and then promptly being told that he had practically no chance with her due to being in different Familias, cashing in what few magic stones he had at her recommendation, and getting some final advice from Eina about how if he got stronger, he might be able to impress Aiz.
Bell closed his eyes as he felt the wind blow, enjoying the nice breeze as he stayed where he was for an extra couple of seconds. He may be on his way home after a very long and intensive day, but that didn't mean he couldn't take his time. Bell then slowly opened his eyes before quickly looking back down the alley, frowning when he didn't see anyone or anything, instead only seeing the empty, barren pathway.
Ever since leaving the Guild building, Bell couldn't help but feel like he was being watched. It wasn't much, but it was like he could feel someone's gaze on him from a distance or feel the presence of someone else around him when there was no one. Bell frowned a bit more before shaking his heads of such thoughts, prompting his earlier smile to return before he turned back to the ruins and resumed his run home.
It wasn't long till he finally arrived at his destination, an old, rundown, and abandoned church amongst all of the ruins in the area. It wasn't much in the way of a home, but it was far better than when he had first arrived in Orario and was essentially homeless. Besides, it was actually a rather cozy place to live for the most part once you get used to it.
Walking through the first set of doors, Bell saw what one would've expected to see when walking into an abandoned church. More than half of the wooden church pews were damaged or missing with only a few remaining more or less intact and the stone tiled floor was heavily damaged and eroded after being left to the elements for who knows how long with numerous pieces of rubble huddled up against the walls. All of the stained glass windows had been shattered, as if someone had thrown stones through each of them, and the large wooden podium had partially fallen into the wooden floor of the altar in front of a damaged symbol of worship.
But Bell paid no mind to the state of disarray that the church was in as he made his way to the side door that was behind the podium that opened to reveal a set of stairs that led to the basement of the church.
Unlike the first floor, the basement of the church was fully furnished and kept fairly clean. There was a coat hanger before a large closet that took up most of the wall to the immediate left of the base of the stairway with an old used couch across from it with a coffee table in front of it. Against the wall farthest from the entrance had a small, twin sized bed with a wooden nightstand wedged in the corner. It wasn't the biggest place to live, but it was certainly a cozy one.
"Are you still here Goddess?" Bell asked to announce his presence as he walked down the stairs, prompting the only other inhabitant of the cheer to tackle him in an overjoyed hug.
"Welcome home Bell!" Hestia said as she wrapped her arms around the only member of her Familia. She wasn't what one would think of when trying to picture what a true goddess would look like. Though she was beautiful, her small stature and petite build made it seem like she was a child, had it not been for the aura that all gods had to differentiate themselves from the other races and, well, the well developed breasts that she had. She had blue eyes and long black hair that were tied into two long tails that reached down to the middle of her thighs, kept in place by two blue and white flower petal accessories with bell ornaments. The goddess was also wearing what she usually wore, a white minidress with two blue ribbons, one smaller one around her neck and a longer one under her chest and around her arms along with a pair of white gloves.
"You sure are back early!" Hestia said as she pulled back from the hug just enough to look up at Bell's face.
"Yeah, almost got myself killed in the dungeon today…" Bell explained why he was back earlier than expected, with more than a light amount of embarrassment in his voice.
"What!?" Hestia gasped as she began to pat down Bell all over his body in an attempt to find any injuries he might've sustained, at one point even getting up to and practically sitting on his shoulders, "You're not hurt are you? I mean if you ever ended up dead it would totally give me a heart attack!".
"I'm fine Goddess, I swear!" Bell said as he gently grabbed Hestia and put her back down onto the ground before bending down onto his knee in front of her, "I mean I'm the only other member of the Hestia Familia, I'm not going to go and get myself killed and abandon my precious goddess.".
"Hm, well I am glad to hear it!" Hestia said as a happy smile grew across her face in response to Bell's words, "Guess I'll just have to relax then, and trust that you won't get into trouble."
"Oh yeah! I brought you a special treat today! Tadah! You hungry?" Hestia said, suddenly jumping up in happiness before spinning around and gesturing towards the coffee table in front of the couch with one outstretched arm, revealing a large bowl of potato puffs that were set on the coffee table.
"When did you learn-huh? What is this?" Bell began before interrupting himself, wanting to know when his goddess had learned to make the snacks before noticing something weird as he had begun to take off his armor and jacket.
"Hm, what's wrong Bell?" Hestia asked as she turned around, dropping a particularly proud and smug expression at being able to provide the food tonight for her and the only member of her familia.
When she had turned around all the way, she saw Bell staring down at his hand, which now had a strange red tattoo on it that had been hidden by his now removed gloves. The tattoo consisted of three distinctive "strokes" separate from one another that, when all three were looked at together, made the distinct outline of a ball of fire.
"Bell Carnel! Did you go out and get a tattoo while I wasn't looking!?" Hestia said, her earlier happy tone shifting to one of motherly authority and anger despite her youthful appearance.
"N-no! No I didn't, Goddess! I swear I honestly don't know anything about why I have this all of a sudden! Please believe me!" Bell said as he waved his hands in front of him in a panic, flinching at the sudden change in behavior from Hestia as she got up close into his personal space with an angry look on her face.
Hestia would stay where she was for a second longer, though she frowned in response to the answer she got. She knew he was telling the truth, it being impossible for anyone to lie to a God or Goddess after all, but that didn't explain where the tattoo came from or why Bell had. Plus, the more Hestia looked at it, the more she would get an odd feeling about it for some reason.
"Alright, well, I'll trust you on that…" Hestia began as she let out a sigh she pulled back out of his personal space, allowing Bell to calm down a bit as she continued, "But since you don't know how you got it, I'd talk to that Guild Advisor of yours to see if she knows anything about this!"
"Yes Goddess!" Bell said immediately in response, glad he wasn't getting in trouble with Hestia, but his stomach then chose that moment to rumble loudly, bringing Bell's attention to the fact that he hadn't eaten since breakfast and the smell of the potato croquettes that filled the room.
The sound caught both the adventurer and the goddess off guard, stunning both of them for a few seconds before they began to laugh. Letting out an amused sigh as she finished laughing, Hestia would speak once again, "Alright, well, since you clearly can't wait any longer, we'll wait to talk about it later. For now, let's just have dinner.".
Bell was more than willing to follow that order, turning around a bit to finish taking off his armor and jacket like he had been doing before as Hestia took a seat on the couch. It was only then that it occurred to Bell that the tattoo had appeared on the same hand that had burned so strongly when he had touched that strange cup earlier that day. Upon remembering such a thing, perhaps he should've brought it up to Hestia, but he didn't want to ruin the meal they were having and he still didn't know what to make of it himself. Plus Hestia said they would talk about it another time. So, he held off on it.
The meal itself had been a fairly normal one. Despite the strange tattoo being visible to both of them as Bell reached forward to grab another one of the potato snacks to eat, they managed to mostly keep their minds off of it for the time being. Instead, they talked about the Familia as a whole and how no one else had joined them for the time being, though Bell was optimistic about that changing in the future and Hestia said she was content with it just being her and Bell for the time being. After that, Hestia made a comment about how she wished she could use her Arcanum so she be of actual use to Bell rather than being so useless, which promptly caused Bell to go off and say that it was because of her they were able to eat something tonight and they could stay at this church, and that things were only going to get better from here.
After that little speech, they soon finished their potato snack dinner and had decided to give Bell's status an update and allow him to grow stronger, though neither one expected it to be too much greater with how difficult it was to get excellia.
"Bell, you think about the dungeon way too much! Do you really think you'll meet someone in that nasty place?" Hestia said as she pricked one of the fingers of her now gloveless hands, causing blood to be drawn. A small droplet of blood fell from the minor wound and fell onto Bell's back, who she was sitting on while he was face down and shirtless on the only bed they had. In response to the divine blood, the tattooed image of the Falna, the blessing of the gods, materialized on Bell's back in the shape of a burning hearth as it let out a light blue glow. This blue glow would grow brighter as it back a sphere of light hovering just above Bell's back and his status would appear in the sphere, magically appearing and hovering as words and letters in the language of the gods, completely unreadable to most mortals.
"Uh, I don't know?" Bell said in response to her question, though he chose not to point out the fact that he had, in fact, met and fallen hopelessly in love with a girl he met in the dungeon. As he spoke though, the numbers of his stats began to change in order to show off the more accurate and updated stats from the excellia he had gained. All the while Hestia watched them change and slowly read through each one.
"And this Aiz Wallen-whatever, if she's really so great then I'm sure tons of guys are already after her. I mean there's probably a couple drooling over her right now as we speak!" Hestia said as the numbers of the changing stats began to stop and settle.
"...Are you upset about something?" Bell asked as he noticed the undercurrent of venom in his goddess' words, causing her to scoff.
"Course no-HUH!?" Hestia began before gasping in complete and utter shock as the Falna changed to show two very unexpected updates to his status.
"What's wrong Goddess?" Bell said, jumping in surprise of the sudden loud gasp of the goddess currently sitting on top of him, trying to tilt his head a bit more to see what was wrong.
Hestia wouldn't respond to him immediately however, she was much too busy trying to process what she was seeing as she read what was before her.
Bell Cranel
Level 1
Strength: I77 - I82
Defense: I13
Dexterity: I-93 - I96
Agility: H148 - H172
Magic: I0 - I50
Magic:
Servant Summoning LV 1: Summons a Heroic Spirit in one of the Seven Standard Class Containers. One Servant per class each and each Servant requires a constant stream of mana to maintain them. (1/7 Servants summoned).
Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Let each be turned over five times, simply breaking asunder the fulfilled time.
Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation.
Raise a wall, against the wind that shall fall. Close the four cardinal gates.
Come out from the crown. Rotate the three-branched road reaching the Kingdom.
I shall declare here.
My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny.
Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail.
If you will submit to this will and this reason… then answer!
An oath shall be sworn here!
I shall attain all virtues of all of Heaven. I shall have dominion over all evils of all of Hell!
From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power, come forth from the ring of restraint, Protector of the Heavenly Scales!
(Open)
Skills
Liaris Freese- Fast growth as long as feelings last. The strength of the effects correspond with the level of the user's feelings. As a side effect it makes the user immune to charms.
Not only did Bell now have a skill from his feelings Aiz making him want to grow in strength faster to be with her, but he had a spell that Hestia had never heard of and he suddenly had a whole new spell slot.
The skill was one Hestia had never heard of, but she certainly couldn't deny it was an insanely useful one. She wasn't sure how strong the effect would be though, since it was directly tied to the users own desire to grow stronger. However, she knew that in no way was she going to be able to tell Bell about this. If word of this skill got around to the other gods, they would all be after him like a pack of starving dogs after a piece of meat to have him for themselves, which meant it had to be a secret, something Bell was completely unable to do. Plus that meant having to acknowledge his feelings for Aiz as true.
What was more pressing was this strange spell that Bell had just gotten out of the blue. Hestia honestly never expected Bell to get a spell, and certainly not one that would give him another spell slot and like this. From the length alone, Hestia was able to tell it was an incredibly powerful spell, but it also clearly wasn't for fighting. Rather, it was to summon something else, a type of spirit that Hestia had no clue existed, to do the fighting for Bell instead, something that Hestia had never heard of before.
Some part of her made Hestia's eyes drift up to look at the red tattoo on Bell's hand for some strange reason. Did that have something to do with this strange spell? She didn't have time to wonder though, she hadn't responded to Bell in a while and he didn't want to make him worried.
"Y-you have a spell!" Hestia exclaimed once she had gotten a hold of herself, causing Bell to jump up in surprise and shock, nearly pushing her off of him and the bed entirely.
"Wait a minute and I'll show you!" Hestia cried out as she tried to stay on the bed and on top of Bell, pushing him back down onto the bed to calm him down for a few seconds. When he was still, but definitely not calm as he was brimming with energy, Hestia "pushed" the globe of light down into Bell's back. Once she had, she would grab a piece of paper and set it over his back before making a gesture that caused it to glow with soft white light as his new stats were transcribed on it.
In a quick motion, Hestia peeled the paper off of Bell's back once the glow was gone and scratched out Liaris Freese to hide it's existence as she jumped off his back and onto the side of the small bed before the young adventurer shot up in excitement. Taking the piece of paper from Hestia, Bell would stare at the thin piece of paper in awe and happiness, letting out sounds that suggested that he was about to start crying for joy at the sight as his eyes hovered over the words that described his new spell. He didn't even notice the blotches of ink down at the bottom of the paper.
"M-magic! I can use magic!" Bell said in complete happiness as he continued to stare at the paper in his hands, driven to commit both the spell and the chant required to cast it to his memory completely. Hestia, meanwhile, watched in quiet amusement as the only member of her familia acted like he was a kid getting his birthday gift. She let him enjoy the moment for a couple of seconds before bringing up something he probably didn't notice in his excitement.
"Alright Bell, I know you're happy and all, but I need you to listen to me right now." Hestia said as she pushed herself up off of the bed, snapping Bell out of his excitement as he looked up to give Hestia his full attention.
"Now I'm sure you didn't notice, but this spell works differently from most and has a counter on it. However, it shows one out of seven, meaning you must have used it already somehow." Hestia said as tilted the paper in Bell's hand to point at it, showing that she was right, "Now, I honestly don't know what a "Heroic Spirit" or a "Class Container" is or even how you were able to do it without knowing the chant, but I need you to think about anything that happened recently that could fit the description of that spell and where this thing might be.".
Bell looked up in thought and tried to do what his goddess told him to do, and tried to remember anything out of the blue that had happened to him between now and the last time he had gotten his status updated, which was yesterday. Unfortunately, the only things that came to mind was that ominous golden cup, the minotaur, and that strange monster that had come from nowhere when his eyes had been closed and had nearly killed him before Aiz saved him, none of which fit the description of "summoning a Heroic Spirit", though it didn't help he didn't know what a Heroic Spirit was. He kept trying to think for a while longer before dropping his head, clearly showing that he honestly couldn't think of how or when he had used the spell, which caused Hestia to frown.
"Wait I know what to do!" Bell said, his head snapping back up with a large smile right back on his face as Hestia flinched in surprise, "I can just cast the spell again and summon one to see if he can help us find the other one!". Although it was clear to Hestia that it was just a thinly veiled excuse for Bell to be able to actually use the spell properly, she couldn't deny that it wasn't a bad idea all things considered. At the very least, it would give Bell a better idea of what a Heroic Spirit is so that he would be better able to remember when he used it.
"Alright, well, I don't see any harm in it so let's do it." Hestia said after letting out an amused sigh, causing the boy to jump up for joy at actually getting to use a spell for real, though Hestia cut it short with another comment, "We should probably do it upstairs though, just so we can avoid a potential mess.".
Bell froze before letting out an awkward laugh, realizing that she was probably right. He didn't realize what casting the spell was going to be like, and it was probably better to do it in an area that was already a disaster rather than some place they would have to clean up afterwards.
A few minutes later, after Bell and Hestia had put his shirt and her gloves respectively back on, they were both upstairs in the ruined part of their home. Night had clearly fallen now, resulting in only pale moonlight that filtered in through the shattered windows illuminating the room. Hestia stood off to the side next to the door to the basement on the altar while Bell was in between the altar and a large clearing in the rubble that he had just made. He may not know what a Heroic Spirit was, but common sense told him that if he was going to summon something, he should at least have enough space in order for him to do it.
Bell closed his eyes in focus as he tried to remember the lines of the chant, taking in a slow breath to calm him down, his childlike excitement at being able to use magic still in full throttle. Acting on what felt like instinct, Bell raised a hand up, which just so happened to be the same hand that had the strange tattoo on it. Now that he was ready, or ready as he'll ever be at least, he began to chant.
"Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Fill. Let each be turned over five times, simply breaking asunder the fulfilled time." Bell began, and like that, there was a clear noticable change in the atmosphere. Both Hestia and Bell felt a strange energy fill the air around them as the typical sounds of the night fell silent outside of the church. Still, neither could truly notice as they were too focused on the ongoing spell.
"Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation.". A bluish white light began to glow in the clearing Bell had made as a magic circle that Hestia had never seen before began to form out of the light, with the bright lines that made up the circle running across the floor to create the various patterns.
"Raise a wall, against the wind that shall fall. Close the four cardinal gates.". At this point in the chant, the strange tattoo on Bell's hand suddenly began to grow brightly, though only Hestia would notice this though with how focused the boy was. The Goddess' eyes widened as her earlier hunch about that tattoo having something to do with the spell proved to evidently be correct.
"Come out from the crown. Rotate the three-branched road reaching the Kingdom.
I shall declare here...", as Bell seemed to reach what seemed like a turning point in the chant and the spell, the light of the magic circle began to intensify to a much higher degree as wind began to blow out from the center of the circle.
"My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny. Submit to the beckoning of the Holy Grail.". The wind and the light both continued to grow stronger and more intense as Bell continued on with the chant to complete and to cast the spell. It had gotten to the point where Hestia had to brace herself against the wind as she covered her eyes from the light and Bell was forced to use his other hand to hold his outstretched arm. At the words "Holy Grail", the images of the golden cup he had seen in the dungeon and the strange hole appeared in Bell's mind, but he was quick to push them out. He was so close to the end now and he wanted to see it through.
"If you will submit to this will and this reason…then answer! An oath shall be sworn here!". Pieces of debris and rubble were beginning to be blown back by the wind, with some of the smaller pieces being thrown clear to the other side of the room or out the already shattered windows. Hestia had to get down lower to the ground in order to avoid falling over while Bell stood strong and continued his chant.
"I shall attain all the virtues of Heaven. I shall have dominion over all the evils of Hell!". The light had become truly blinding at this point and at this point in the chant, the wind was bad enough to even cause the remaining wooden pews to shake and move across the ground a bit. With the current state of the church, Hestia thought it was going to be bad if the spell continued, fearing that the ruined old building would just fall down onto their heads if it went on. She tried to call out to Bell to stop, but with how focused he was on the spell, it was lost between the wind and the sound of magical energy in the air.
"From the Seventh Heaven, attended to by three great words of power, come forth from the ring of restraint, Protector of the Heavenly Scales!" Bell cried out the final line of the chant, opening his eyes to see the end result of the spell he had just cast, only to nearly be blinded as the magic circle's light exploded out. The wind had also kicked up a great amount at the end, causing him to nearly fall over from the unexpectedly strong gust. What seemed like a pillar of solid white light formed where the magic circle was before the light became too blinding for either Bell or Hestia to see anything anymore as the world faded away to light for a couple of seconds.
When he had regained his sense of sight, Bell noticed that he was suddenly on the stone ground, having fallen to the ground while he had been blinded, feeling an odd kind of exhaustion that he had never felt before. "Bell!" Hestia cried out as she noticed him sitting down on the ground before running over to him to see if he was alright. Though both couldn't say anything more before a voice spoke up, bringing both of their attention to a figure that was standing in the center of the magic circle that was now slowly fading away.
The figure was a tall male, dressed in an ancient style of leather and bronze armor that was colored mostly white, decorated in diamond shaped patterns of light brown with a scarf like grey cloth around his neck that was tucked into his armor. His arms were bare, showing a set of muscular but lean arms like those of a top athlete while his legs were completely covered by plates of grey metal with a dark grey cloth underneath it, leading to a set of ancient style sandals.
Despite the archaic and warrior like style of dress he wore, the features of the man's face were gentle and calm. He appeared like a young man in the early days of his prime, but the light green eyes of his carried a kind of wisdom that only could've come with age and the gentle smile he gave as he looked down at Bell and Hestia gave off a boundless patience. He had a long set of brown hair that went down all the way to his waist, though at first glance you would be forgiven for thinking it was even longer because of the man's horse tail that was a matching shade.
"Servant, Archer. Chiron has come in response to your summons. I hope my knowledge will be of some use to you as I do my best to aid you. Either way, I'm glad to meet you.".